


even our eyes are different colors, but we see just fine

by MayWilder



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, M/M, Minor Injuries, Nervousness, Tony Stark Acting as Harley Keener's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:48:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23927143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayWilder/pseuds/MayWilder
Summary: “I may be eighteen, but I’ve been in a town with a population of seven hundred and eighty-nine people. With a median age of forty. Do you even know the population of New York City?”“I suppose you do?” Tony drawled sarcastically.“1.629 million, Tony. Million. Do you know how much that increases my chances of meeting someone who turns out to be soulmate?”***Or, Harley gets his deepest desire: a soulmate.
Relationships: Harley Keener & Tony Stark, Harley Keener/Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 41
Kudos: 824
Collections: Parkner Remix April 2020





	even our eyes are different colors, but we see just fine

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [funny how the stars crossed right, 'cause we work so well, and we don't even know why](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23684464) by [LilacsAndLilies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilacsAndLilies/pseuds/LilacsAndLilies). 



> This is for the Parkner Server April Event: a remix challenge! I got LilacsandLilies and picked their story that's linked in the "inspired by." Most of the dialogue is from her fic, as this is a Harley POV of that. 
> 
> Hope you like, Lils! Love you honey
> 
> title from Why by Sabrina Carpenter

Harley didn’t have a good view of love. 

With love, there was no security. There was no guarantee that someone wouldn’t just turn and walk out of the door. Harley’s dad had said he loved his mother, but his hands said otherwise. His dad said he loved their family, but he walked out the door and never came back. Harley’s mother said she loved him, and she spent every night at her boyfriend’s house instead of with her children. 

Love was just a word. 

But soulmates? 

Soulmates were security, home, so much more than love. Soulmates were who you were physically unable to lie to. They couldn’t tell you they love you if they didn’t mean it. They couldn’t promise they’d stay forever if they were planning on leaving. 

“You know, soulmates aren’t guaranteed,” Tony told him from the car. Harley’d been explaining his hope for a soulmate during the ride. “And you’re eighteen, kid. Are you prepared for the reality that it might not happen?”

Harley scrunched his nose. “I may be eighteen, but I’ve been in a town with a population of seven hundred and eighty-nine people. With a median age of forty. Do you even know the population of New York City?”

“I suppose you do?” Tony drawled sarcastically. 

“1.629 million, Tony. _Million_. Do you know how much that increases my chances of meeting someone who turns out to be soulmate?”

“Whatever it is,” Tony pushed his glasses up his face. “I’m just not wanting you to get your hopes up too high, because it hurts when shit like that crumbles down. I love how you’re all full of hope.I do. Just...you know.”

“Tony,” Harley said flatly. “My father abandoned my family and my mother doesn’t give a shit about me. I understand what it is to be let down.”

Tony cracked a wry smile and flicked Harley’s ear affectionately. “Alright, kid, you got a point. Keep dreaming.”

Harley smiled back and leaned into his seat. “Alright, so. Tell me about this Parker kid.”

Tony lit up and didn’t stop talking for the rest of the ride.

)-(

Harley needed to kick himself in the ass. 

No sooner did he finish waxing poetry about soulmates than Tony introduced him to Peter Parker, who was probably the cutest thing this side of the world. He was all slicked back hair and big brown eyes, nerdy t-shirt and lab-safe goggles slightly fogged up from where he was bending over a workbench. When Tony prompted the other boy to talk, he stumbled over his words at first and kept his shoulders a little hunched. 

The longer Tony prodded him to talk, however, the easier things seemed to flow. Peter relaxed his stance as Harley leaned against a table and Tony stayed in the doorway. Harley took comfort in listening to the accented words about his acceptance into Columbia and his aunt’s exaggerated college prep she’d been doing. Apparently, May Parker had gone a little overboard with college organization hacks. 

While Peter spoke about his aunt, Harley’s phone dinged. He swallowed tightly, knowing exactly who it was from before he even read the message. 

_Tin Can Man: So you like him enough to challenge your soulmate wants, right?_

_Me: look old man_   
_Me: he cute_

_Tin Can Man: And?_

Harley ignored him in favor of focusing on Peter again. 

Tony didn’t care.

_Tin Can Man: Kid, he’s smart and your age and right in front of you. Didn’t you say you liked brunettes anyways?_

_Me: oh my god are you seriously trying to set me up_

_Tin Can Man: Why do you text like that? What is the point in paying for your special online classes if you don’t use punctuation?_   
_Tin Can Man: Also, perhaps._   
_Tin Can Man: By perhaps I mean ‘yes.’_

Harley put his phone on silent and pointedly placed it on the table in front of him. He hoped that would be the end of it. Instead, Tony stood and cleared his throat. He sent a sly smirk to Harley. “Sorry, kiddos, I gotta run, urgent meeting.”

 _Bullshit_ , Harley thought. _You told me Pepper wasn’t going to call you all day because I came to town._

_Asshole._

He turned to see Peter messing with his fingers, and cleared his throat. 

“So, how’d you meet Tony?” Harley asked, realizing Tony had never offered an explanation beyond him being an intern. Harley knew plenty about his personalities and talents, but nothing about how the two met. 

“I came home one day to Tony Stark sitting on my couch. He wanted to recruit me to f-”

Harley frowned when Peter’s words cut off and the other boy widened his eyes. "Peter? You ok?" 

"No, I'm not- I mean, no, I-" Peter stammered before letting out a groan. "I'll be fine, just lost a hold of my ability to speak." 

Harley couldn’t stop himself from raising an eyebrow. Was Peter nervous? Was there a chance he also felt a bit of attraction..? 

"Sure,” he decided to tease. “I'll believe you." 

Peter just gave him a nervous smile, huffing out a laugh that sounded more like a heavy breath. Harley waited for him to say something, but he just stood in front of Harley with a distant look in his eyes, his gaze seemingly locked onto a spot on Harley’s shoulder.

"So what do you like to do?" Harley blurted out, desperate for something beyond the weird staring they’ve got going on. 

"I, uh-” Peter looked startled. “I like biochemistry. You?"

Harley smiled before he could stop himself.

"Mechanic, like the old man,” he answered. His gaze turns to the lab as he stepped more into the room than he had all afternoon. "It's an impressive lab. What's the set up?"

The tour was the most comfortable Peter looked since Harley had shown up. The other boy talked excitedly about this machine and those tools, and his time with Tony or his personal projects. Harley enjoyed listening to the eager way Peter spoke. More than that, though, he liked how they fell into an easy back and forth that was as natural as breathing. Harley would have honestly given anything to stay, just the two of them, conversation flowing. Maybe Tony was right about something. 

Maybe a natural connection could be worth exploring. 

By the time Peter finished his tour, Harley was nearly willing to call himself besotted. The other boy motioned to a desk near the middle of the lab, seemingly untouched. "And finally, this is your desk. The one next to yours is mine, and the one over there is Mr. Stark's."

Harley sat himself at his station, pleased with how natural it felt to be in a fully functioning lab again "Why do you call him Mr. Stark?"

Peter laugh. 

Harley’s heart stuttered. 

"It started out of respect and, honestly, as least a little bit of awe, but now it's because it annoys him." 

Harley grinned at him. "I like the way you think, Parker."

Peter ducked his head, color spreading across his cheeks. If that made the boy blush, Harley realized he’d have a grand time flirting. 

"Well,” Peter says after a stretch of silence. “if you have any ideas, get to work, just mess around and get used to the place." 

The smile he flashed on conclusion sealed the deal, and Harley began thinking of appropriate ways to ask out his new coworker without coming off creepy. 

_Hey, please don’t file a sexual harassment claim against me, but I would very much like to see exactly how much you blush._

Harley turned back to his workbench as Peter himself unrolled what seemed to be blueprints. He couldn’t read them, but the sight of the paper inspired Harley to dig his tablet from his bag and open a program he and Tony had been working on. It occupied his mind for a bit until he looked up to reach for materials. Harley was going to call this product “under armor” just to bother Tony, as it was a comfortable fabric he could wear inside his suit. It kept his attention for a bit, but he made the mistake of glancing up. Peter was focused intently, tongue sticking out just so as he worked, and wearing an eerily calm expression. He was so zen, Harley wondered if he could be broken from his thoughts. 

He slid his chair closer to Peter, but nothing changed. He cleared his throat, and the boy kept working. Finally, he leaned slightly closer and spoke rather abruptly with an inquiry on what Peter was doing. Peter flinched and spun, arms scrambling to push away his work. Harley raised his eyebrows in surprise, wondering what Peter was hiding while sitting directly next to him. 

“Uh-” Peter choked. “Web design?”

Curiosity prickled at Harley’s brain and he stepped from his chair to stand closer to Peter. “Web design? I thought you were going to study biochemistry?”

“Uh- I am, it’s just a thing I’m doing on the side, working with some other people on it.” Peter said, looking so flustered and determined that Harley figured it was best to step back. 

“Ok…” he said placatingly, moving back to his own station.

“So.” Peter’s eyes darted to Harley’s bench. “What are you working on?”

“Nothing important.” 

"What do you mean nothing important?" Suddenly, Peter was the one behind him and Harley was the one who felt his breath shorten at the proximity.

"Just- just getting used to the space, making things I've made a hundred times before." 

"And what would that be?" Peter leaned closer as if looking at the work, but his chin nearly rested on Harley’s shoulder. 

Harley barely noticed that he’d startled at the electric shock through his body until he felt the slice of his knife in his palm. He yelped, immediately reaching for the injury as the knife clattered to the table.

Peter jumped away, cursing under his breath. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault." Harley said. He meant it, since Harley was the one who could barely handle attention from another guy. "The cut isn't too big, should heal in a day or two."

There was silence as Peter returned with a first aid kit. He was pressed flush against Peter as he worked, something Harley normally would have been losing his mind about. Instead, he was focusing on not crying like an infant because the cut was shallow, but the skin of his palm was tender and the cut felt like angry pinpricks on crack. 

"How much does it hurt?" Peter asked after sanitizing the wound, reaching for the gauze. 

Harley intended to grit his teeth and lie. He didn’t want to seem pathetic, so he opened his mouth ready to say it wasn’t that bad. Instead of that, however, he found himself saying, "I'm n- I'm not ok. It hurts." 

Harley’s eyes widened when he realized he had intended to lie and instead told the truth. The realization washed over him slowly, as his eyes looked over Peter and his stomach did backflips. Soulmate. 

The one person I can’t lie to, Harley thought helplessly. Ridicuously, he didn’t even think about his hand hurting. Instead, he looked to where Peter’s smaller fingers were moving with precision as he pressed a cotton ball into the wound. 

"I-" Harley didn’t know how to tell him, how to say it. 

"Don't,” Peter told him gently. “Not yet.".

That was weird. 

Peter finished wrapping the gauze around the cotton ball and Harley’s hand. He taped it into place, smoothing a thumb over the spot a few more times than necessary before looking up at Harley. "Are you ok?"

"I will be." Harley smiled instinctively. It faded as he realized Peter seemed able to read his thoughts. "You already know, don't you?"

Peter only nodded. 

"Why didn't you say anything?" Harley asked, confused. If Peter knew what was between them, the possibility of what they could have, why didn’t he speak up?

"Because…” Peter shifted. “Because I was scared. Because I don't know how to deal with all of this and I guess I just- I needed the time to process it." 

Peter looked scared. He was fidgety in the way that looks like he's going to bolt if startled, and maybe a little guilty. 

So Harley tells the truth.

"Same, I guess—I'm scared." He keeps eye contact with Peter, hoping his expression conveys that he really is unsure of himself. "But at least we can be scared together."

"Yeah." Peter's shoulders lose their tension. "I guess we can."

Reaching out with his uninjured hand, Harley feels a little goofy, but confident this will put Peter at ease. "I think we've both been doing this wrong, let's start again. Hi, I’m Harley Keener. I’m a mechanic from Rose Hill, Tennessee, and I'm your soulmate”

Peter smiled and shook the offered hand. “Hi, I’m Peter Parker, a biochemist from Queens, New York City, and I'm your soulmate.”

Harley, caught up in how the handshake turned into more of them holding hands and smiling at each other, didn't even notice Tony come barging through door until he started talking. 

"Sorry, they were planning a luncheon with some important people and they wanted to ask me something. I was told it was an emergency but it was really just to try out which type of bread was the best, can you imagine?" 

Harley looked up just in time to see the smirk drop from his face as his gaze zeroed in the blood. "What happened here?"

"Oh uh- nothing much Mr. Stark.” Peter answered while Harley pulled his hand back. 

“Don’t worry so much old man," Harley shrugged. He stood to get a paper towel and clean the blood up. Did he look as casual as he wanted it to look? "I just cut myself with the Xacto knife. It’s not even that deep and Peter already bandaged it, I’ll be fine.”

Tony's worry melts away as Harley shows the cleanly bandaged hand. His eyes dart between the two, and Harley knew the teasing was coming. 

"Peter bandaged it?" Tony grinned. "You two must have gotten close in the last hour.”

That lovely blush spread across Peter's cheeks again. “I- well- I was the one who uh- indirectly caused him to get hurt, so it only seemed fair.” 

“You make it sound so impersonal.” Harley teases, moving to sit next to Peter. He nudges their shoulders and Peter ducks his head with a sweet smile that made it just a little bit harder to breathe.

“Ok, something weird’s going on and I would like to know what it is." Tony pulled up a chair and sat down across from the two boys. "What are you two planning?”

Harley looks over to Peter, who looks back openly. There's a determination in the other boy's eyes. It feels natural to lace their fingers together. How Harley knows that they're going to share this moment, he doesn't understand, but he does. He gives Peter a little uptick of his lips and then they turn to Tony at the same time. 

"We're soulmates."

Tony’s mouth dropped wide open for a moment. He didn't even try to collect himself, just blurted out, “You’re kidding right?”

Peter just shook his head. 

"Jesus." Tony looked at both of them, and then up at the ceiling. “How did I not see that coming?”

Harley couldn't help but laugh at the idea; not two hours ago Harley was saying how he was excited to meet his soulmate in New York City, and Tony was wanting him to ask Peter out. In such a short amount of time, both got what they wanted. 

“So," Tony said, leaning back in his chair. You can’t lie to each other. So I’m assuming this means he knows that you’re Spider-Man?”

Harley's stomach dropped through the floor and he turned to gape at Peter. 

"You're _what_?!?" 


End file.
